Hollow Emotion
by Karin Starsen
Summary: Sequal to To Reunite In Zanarkand, another of my stories. This is what happens to Paine after Rikku's disapearance. Paine becomes a bounty hunter, why does Gippal always follow her! And what is Gippal's secret? Not PxG... for now. Please R&R.
1. decision

**Disclaimer.** **I DON'T OWN ANYTHING FROM FINAL FANTASY! NOTHING!**

Authors note: Before you read this chapter, you MUST READ MY OTHER STORY! This is a sequel to 'To reunite in Zanarkand'. If you don't read that one first, I'm sure you will get confused at least once during this story. Thank you! Just trying to save you from mass confusion!

Paine and Gippal had departed from the Celcuis only moments before, leaving a tearful Yuna behind. It would have ripped Paine's heart out to see herself leaving Yuna like that, if she had any heart left to be ripped out. She had been walking around the ship in an emotionless haze for days before Gippal said she needed a break. So, he took her to stay Inn at the Thunder Plains. Not exactly your peaceful thinking place.

Yet, it was peaceful to Paine. Nobody was there other than them, and the Innkeeper. Very few people passed by during the day time… if there even was a day considered there. Clouds all the time, and rain and thunder… it was the same no matter what the time. Paine liked that about the Thunder plains. She didn't have to worry herself over meaningless daily chores, or worry if it was too late to be up. She could sit alone, and collect her thoughts… well mostly. Because Gippal was around more than she wanted. And no, he couldn't just sit quietly either.

For some reason, after the sphere of Rikku, Gippal had found it his job to stay with her. Wherever she went. And to be blunt, she was annoyed more than usual. And now was one of those rare times she wanted to talk to him about.

Paine was lying frustrated on her bed, and Gippal sat on the bed next to her feet looking out the rain battered window.

"Look, Gippal, you don't understand me! I can get over this on my own."

"I used to understand you. The Crimson squad was one of the best parts of my life, we knew each other so well back then…"

"And now the Crimson squad is over. We went our separate ways, and things were good for a while. But anything good for me always ends Gippal! Just let me get on with my life, okay?"

He was silent for a minute. She was right, nothing ever seemed to go right for her. But he couldn't just let her go on with life thinking that. "I can let you go on with life, but I'm going to be there."

"Why! Why do you need to be there?"

"Cause that's what Rikku wanted me to do…"

"And that's it?" Paine asked quietly, cutting Gippal off. "It's all for Rikku? Not because you want to stay?"

"Paine, I…"

"Leave my room. Now."

The force in her voice said 'leave or I'll make you', so he left the room. The clock said it was late anyway, and he was tired. But he was truly worried about Paine. Not just because of Rikku, he really screwed up in there. But what was he supposed to say? He was never a wonder with words…

Paine woke up the next morning… was it morning? She looked at the clock.10:02 PM. This place was really screwing her up. She was starting to hate it. She wasn't quite sure what to do though, and she would decide what to do so that she could leave. She knew that she didn't want to be a sphere hunter again.

_Sphere hunter… _Rikku's face popped into her mind. Her eyes started to get blurry with tears. _I can't cry, I will not cry. Why am I crying so much? Why the hell am I doing this? I shouldn't worry so much about her. She's fine. She's okay. I'll never see her again… why the heck do I care?_

She sat up. She was only wearing a blood red slip, but she wouldn't have cared if Gippal came in then. But he was probably sleeping. She looked at her bare, surprisingly dainty, toes. She had painted them black, but on one she put a small yellow dot in the middle. It was her way of remembering Rikku. It still hadn't faded yet, and the memory still haunted her.

"…_Paine can't go, because she was in the crimson squad! What if the past was altered!..."_

_Gippal was in the crimson squad. He said they were the best times of his life. But why? It was great, but all good things come to an end. Like good friendships, _she thought. She slipped back into bed as more struck towers repeatedly right next door. What would she become? She couldn't just wander aimlessly looking for random jobs… or could she? She thought about what she almost became before joining the gullwings. She joined that just because she wanted to fly, not because she was good at finding spheres. She was good at fighting. She almost became a bounty hunter. _That's it! I'll be a bounty hunter, nothing about that job will remind me of Rikku… and I'm good at it, that's what I will become. And if Gippal wants to follow me, then so be it. _With that she fell asleep and started to dream…

"_And what do you want to be when you are older, little one?"_

"_I want to be a dancer!"_

"_A dancer?"_

"_Yes! I want to float about and fly through the air, just like a bird! I want to dance!"_

_A little group of boys appears. "More like a fighter to me!" says the main one. "fighter, fighter!"_

_Gippal appears from the group of boys, but he's younger. "Don't worry, I'll protect you. I'll make sure that nobody hurts you. Just like Rikku told me to."_

_Rikku appears. "Lighten up a little Paine, lighten up!"_

_Lighten up!_

_Lighten up!_


	2. the first job

"So, how much then?"

"Didn't you hear my words, lassy? This ain't no picnic…"

"I know that," Paine said, glaring at the rather hairy, barbaric looking man. "Just tell me how much it is, and then I'll go save your daughter."

He hesitated a moment. "I haven't really thought about it…"

"Is your daughter not worth a price?"

Gippal glanced at Paine for a moment. _Why would she say that? Of course…_

"Of course me daughter's worth the price! How about 1000 gil?"

Paine sat a moment, then grabbed her sword and stood up. She left the small café in Luca. Gippal stood and walked to the door, his back facing the man. The man looked confused.

"…I'm sorry about that…" Gippal said. "And that means yes. I'll make sure of it."

The man smiled and nodded, but before he said thank you, Gippal was already out the door and following Paine up the steps towards the balcony overlooking the ocean. He touched her arm to stop her, but she pulled away.

"The man said that his daughter was lost in bikinel dessert… this isn't the right-"

"Do you really think I'm going to do that?" she asked, eyes flaring, spinning around from the railing over looking the ocean.

"Well, yeah. Of course you are!" Gippal said with the same amount of fury.

"No, I'm now. There is a 9 year old girl, lost in the dessert, the same dessert I was lost in by the way, and he's only paying 1000 gil." Paine said, turning her back to him.

There was silence, and then Gippal spoke softly, coming to stand next to her. "But his daughter is lost… and if you don't do it, other people will die trying. Is it because of the Al Bhed… are you afraid that they will ask you about…. It?"

"Shut up gippal. We've got ourselves a journey ahead of us. No matter what I think, I need the money. Let's go."

**Bikinel Dessert**

Paine and Gippal stepped off of the hovercraft at the oasis.

"How long should I wait?" the man asked.

"Don't wait for us."

"What!" Gippal and the man said.

"It's too dangerous for you. Leave while you still can."

The man started up the hovercraft, shaking his head. Mumbling something under his breath that Gippal couldn't catch, but thought that it was most likely along the lines of 'Idiots, I'll never see them again.' And he didn't disagree with him. The hovercraft left and it only left a trail of dust, and silence between the two people.

Paine walked towards the oasis, trying to keep all her senses aware. There was a rustling in the bushes next to her, and a suddenly a small girl ran out. She looked at Paine with sad eyes, then collapsed onto the ground.

"Well, that was…"

"Quiet!" Paine shushed him. The bushes were still rustling, and then the ground started shaking. Out of the ground, the most massive thing she has ever seen in her entire life. And it wanted to kill them… badly.


	3. Dead Man's Cave

Alright, so maybe it wasn't the most MASSIVE thing she had seen in her entire life, but it was pretty damn big. The fiend was a sandy color to blend in with its surroundings. Sand seemed to cascade off of it continually. Paine pulled her sword out quickly to counteract it's first attack. Gippal was right there next to her, his alchemy gun out and ready.

Paine used armor break on the creature's shell. After it's armor had decreased, Gippal attacked with a mixture of grenades and something else he pulled from his pocket. The fiend was hit with explosions over and over again in multiple places. It got knocked back a little, but it just shook it's head and powered up for an attacked.

Suddenly, it's tail came flying around. Gippal jumped out of the way, but it smacked Paine right across the face. She was dazed for a minute, and her health was low. She suddenly had the feeling like she was flying, and felt rejuvenated. It was a potion.

"Thanks," she muttered gruffly. And before Gippal could say 'your welcome' she was off on another attack.

After a while, they defeated the fiend. It dropped 500 gil, and a high potion. Paine gave the high potion to Gippal, because he needed it. Paine felt much more powerful once she left the battle then when it had started. She turned around in content, but that calmness was soon shattered when she found that the girl was gone.

"Oh shit…"

"What is it?" Gippal asked, walking over. He saw the girl had disappeared. He shook his head. "All that fighting for nothing… Let's head back to camp. I'll send out some squads while they're digging. Hey, if it's their goal in life to dig through a dessert, I'm sure they have time to…"

"Shut up. We aren't going back to the camp."

"What!" Gippal was astonished. "What do you mean! We've gotta go back! We don't know what's out there!"

"And I thought you were the more courageous one out of the Crimson squad…" she said blankly. She looked at him. "Or, was it the most idiotic?"

Gippal shut up, and Paine stepped forward into the sand. The girl couldn't have gone too far, so they decided that they should start looking. If they found her before it got dark, they could start heading back to the camp.

**2 Hours Later, 5 miles from the oasis**

"I don't understand, Paine. Where could that brat possibly have gone off to?"

"I don't think she decided to send us on a hunt, Gippal. I think the fiend we fought was a distraction for another one to take her from behind us."

"Well… that could make sense. Damn, if we had gone back to camp, I could have gotten some machina to carry us around. Instead, we're trudging through sand."

"Don't always rely on your machina."

That was the end of the conversation for a while. They decided to head to another area. They had heard that a cave somewhere in the West had been noticed for mild fiend activity. One of their machina had been returned all mangled, and the driver gone. Gippal meant to go and check it out anyway, so this was the perfect opportunity.

When they got to the cave mouth, it looked just barely large enough from them to crawl through. Paine didn't understand.

"The fiend that we fought was far too large to fit through this hole. If there are more of them, this can't be the place that they took the girl."

"Who said it was the same kind of fiend?"

Paine looked at him funny.

"Hey!" Gippal said. "I'm smarter then you take me for! I know a lot about this desert! Look, all I'm saying is that if there is a large enough group of smaller fiends, they tend to beat up the larger fiends into doing their dirty work here. This could be a situation where that happens. Let's check it out."

So they moved forward and crawled cautiously through the entrance of the cave. Inside there was a network of smaller tunnels, and hanging above one from wiring inside of machina… was the driver that had disappeared… hanging from his neck, dead.

Gippal's face cringed. "That's grotesque…"

"Did you know him?"

"…yeah," he answered quitly.

Suddenly, they heard a scream coming from the same tunnel the man was hanging from. It sounded like a girl, and they knew that they found the right place. _Of course I figured as much when I saw the hanging man,_ thought Paine. They pulled out their weapons and walked down the tunnel, trying not to look up at the al bhed driver hanging underground.

_(Please review these, as someone kindly pointed out, that WASN'T a happy ending to the last story… but the story isn't over yet! I didn't get what I wanted out of a happy ending for reunite in zanarkand. So, once all the sequels are up, I have an ending for all! But, what happens? And who is with who? This is my story, not yours… please respect my decisions and if you like it, thanks a lot! REVIEW!)_


	4. She's a healer

(_YAY! REVIEWS! Here is the next chapter!)_

The tunnel smelled rank. There were no fancy words needed to describe it. R-A-N-K rank. And not like the musty, grandma smelling, rank. The death kind of rank. Paine almost puked as she entered underneath the dead Al Bhed. Gippal kept his eyes on the ground in front of him. They cautiously made there way deeper into the cave, keeping an eye out for more fiends. They came to a bend in the tunnel, and suddenly there was loud screeching and chattering coming from around the corner. Paine backed up against the wall, and pulled Gippal next to her. He hit his head against the wall.

"Hey, I could have done that myself, Paine."

"Shut up," she whispered hurriedly at him.

Slowly, she sidestepped along the wall, getting closer to the corner's edge. When she got to the corner, she peered around the edge. There were three fiends circling the small girl from earlier that day. The fiends were large lizard-looking creatures, they had long teeth, and their tongues flickered in and out of their mouths constantly. They were all just barely taller then Paine at their shoulders, and their heads went up a few more feet then that.

"Oh my god…" she whispered under her breath.

"What is it?" Gippal asked from behind her. He was trying to peer around the corner next to her, but her head was in the way.

The fiends were pushing at each other, and they seemed to be angry about something. The girl looked around hurriedly, not sure what to do. Tears streamed down her face. Suddenly, two of the fiends broke out in a fight. Paine gasped.

"They're fighting over her."

"What do you mean?" Gippal asked. "Like… who's going to eat her!"

"I'm not sure… All I know is is that they all want her, and there are three of them."

"This can't be good," Gippal whispered, leaning back against the wall. "What do we do?"

"I don't know…" Paine felt herself suddenly be thrown into the leadership position. Gippal was a born leader of the Al Bhed, but what was she? Why was he asking her advice? "Uh… let me watch a minute more."

She turned her head back around. The two fiends that had been fighting before stopped, one lay severely injured on the ground. She guessed that it wouldn't live much longer, and she turned her attention to the other two. They were circling each other now, ready for a vicious battle. Paine knew what to do.

"We wait for the other two to fight."

"What other two?" Gippal asked, he not being able to see any of this.

"Just wait here, and when I return, run like hell."

"What!" Gippal asked. "You can't go in there alone!"

But it was too late. The fiends broke out into battle, and Paine was halfway across the cavern. Gippal looked around the corner at the situation, his alchemy gun out just in case they needed it. The girl saw Paine coming, and an odd looked crossed her face. Partly hope, and partly fear. Paine jumped out of the way of the two fighting fiend, who were now rolling over each other across the room. The fiends were in Gippal's view now, and he couldn't see what happened to Paine or the girl. He'd wait another minute before heading in….

"Run!" he heard Paine yell. She was coming from around the fiends, the girl in her arms. The fiends were too busy to notice the scrawny people running for their lives. Paine made it to the tunnel entrance at full sprint, and did not stop. Gippal came right behind her. Halfway to the entrance, he heard the screech of a dieing fiend. Soon, the other would be on their trail. He picked up the pace. They got to the entrance, and Paine heard the steps of a lizard coming after them.

"Shit!" she said, setting the girl down. "We're going to have to fight it!"

"What!" Gippal shouted. "That thing will kill us in the state we're in!"

"Hey!" Paine shouted back at him. "We don't have time to argue, the fiend is tired too! It just killed two other ones; it must be the slightest bit tired!"

The girl looked back and forth, a somewhat distant look in her eyes. Paine turned gently to her, kneeling down.

Her voice softened. "Don't be frightened, just stay behind us. Don't go far from us, alright?"

The girl nodded. The two adults turned around to face the entrance, and drew their weapons. They looked at each other, and nodded. They would win against this fiend. And suddenly, the largest of the three lizard fiends emerged from the entrance. The girl gasped, but she didn't move from behind them. The battle started.

Paine got the first hit as Gippal charged his gun for an attack. The fiend came after Paine, but she dodged it, barely making it away from the claws. Gippal fired, and hit the fiend's weak spot. It cried out in pain, and turned its attention to him. Paine steadied herself for liquid steal, and Gippal got hit on an attack by the fiend. His arm was cut, and he was knocked back a bit, but he stumbled back forward. It was Paine's turn for a hit.

She attacked with liquid steal, and sure enough water was its weakness. Gippal changed his mind, and mixed two grenades together. They were both readying for the next attack, and they felt a shield go up around them. It was conveniently placed right before the fiends next attack, which Paine couldn't dodge or else she'd endanger the girl. The blow glanced right off, and Paine turned to Gippal.

"Thanks," she said quickly.

"It wasn't me!" he replied. "I thought it was you!"

"Then… if it wasn't you," she attacked the fiend, then returned, "who could it have been?"

Then she realized that the girl was there, she turned around to look at her. The girl smiled back, and she raised a short staff to heal Gippal's wound.

"Well… I'll be damned," Gippal muttered. They turned back to the fiend with more confidence. The fight didn't last much longer, but it would have been a close call without the girls help. When they finished the fight, Gippal pulled out a flare, and they waited for someone to come and pick them up. They also retrieved the dead body from the cave. It didn't feel right to leave him there like that, so the decision was made to give him a proper burial. It was a long day, and Paine was grateful when she finally fell asleep in a tent at the Al Bhed base camp. Things felt almost like they used to… minus Baralia and Nooj. Maybe her past could be renewed.

_(So…. I know I spelled Baralia wrong, but I don't want him in this story, so it doesn't matter. Anyhoo. R&R.)_


End file.
